US judge declines Minnesota’s effort to force Texas to extradite ICE agent

ICE agent Christian Castro faces criminal charges for shooting a Minnesota man in the leg during an Immigration raid.A United States judge has denied a request to compel the extradition of a federal Immigration agent charged with shooting a man during an Immigration raid in the state of Minnesota and lying about it.Wednesday’s decision concerns the case of Immigration-and-customs-enforcement" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="142597" data-entity-type="organization">Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Christian Castro, who has been detained in a county jail in Texas since May.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3HRW says US civil rights enforcement reduced under Trump: What to knowlist 2 of 3Minnesota official sues Texas governor to force ICE agent’s extraditionlist 3 of 3US Immigration agents arrested more than 49,500 people in Julyend of listMinnesota has sought his extradition as he faces charges of assault and falsely reporting a crime in Hennepin County, which covers Minneapolis.Under Texas law, the state cannot hold the subject of an extradition order for more than 90 days. At that point, the suspect must either be transferred or released. The deadline for Castro is set to expire on Thursday.Minnesota argued in a lawsuit this month that Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, has refused to authorise the extradition for political reasons.But in Wednesday’s ruling, Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr wrote that he could not intervene because Abbott has not yet acted – and has therefore not yet violated any law.“The record reflects only that Governor Abbott has neither agreed nor refused to sign the rendition warrant as to Castro,” Rodriguez wrote.Castro has been charged in connection with the non-fatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during an Immigration raid in Minnesota on January 14, part of a mass deportation effort under President Donald Trump.Starting in December, Trump oversaw a large-scale deployment of federal agents to the Midwestern state, dubbed Operation Metro Surge.